seahorsemad

Good advise Mark. I found out the hard way when mine breed. i filled up a 80 litre tank of water. When the Ponies (baby seahorses) came to feed they didnt move around as much as i thought they would and some of them starved as i had too much water in the tank and they could not get to the food. In the end i reduced the amount of water in there tank to about 30 litres and had much better success. From memory the male goes into contractions (imagaine going into contractions and having upwards of 300 children) and most try to deliver the ponies at sunrise, so have a good look first thing in the morning. Good Luck

They get the best of both worlds. Christmas and Chinese new year. Poor you

Did your children get little red envelopes today (containing money) or light loads of fireworks today Wok?

Te atatu South is a great area ( i live there). Commuting to the CBD was really easy. I used to get on a bus and be in town in half an hour. Bus lanes down the motorway make commuting alot easier. There are flyer buses that will be a five minute walk from your door stop and will drop you off in downtown. From where you are it is about a five minute drive to the motorway and about a three minute drive to the local supermarket and the mall. Your local shops have a fruitstore, dairy, takeaways, domino's hairdresser, video shop, roast shop and thai We have never had any problems with safety and we have been living in the area you are looking at for many years. Pm me if you have any more questions

Glad to hear that you have got a new tank and your baby is getting better. Try mixing in a few pieces of mysis shrimp when you feed with brine shrimp. You have trained your little one on good food and it might take a little while to switch back. She will go back to mysis eventually, but she knows she is on to a good thing I had a blue tang in with my Kudas and had to seperate them as even at a small size the blue tang was picking on the seahorses and i would stay away from shrimps as they will move faster than the seahorses and will hunt them down. Its really best to keep the seahorses seperate from fish. The seahorses have no defense against the fish and cant get away from them in an aquarium like they would be able to in the wild. You might be able to get away with a small goby or mandarin fish, but nothing fast moving or large. I would look at getting some more live rock to help your tank fight ammonia and nitrite. Also if you have any sponges in your new filter i would look at taking them out. I had a friend who trained her seahorses to eat out of the net. That way you dont get the food all over the tank and it might help with the algae problems. I have trained my Pot bellied seahorses to do that aswell. Seahorses dont have stomachs so when they eat food it goes straight through there digestive systems hence the need to feed them a couple of times a day if you can. it is a fine line between not underfeeding your seahorses and not polluting your tank with food they dont eat. Good luck with your new tank

i know i am showing my age, but 97 rocked. It was the best BDO in my opinion

Watch the hermit crabs with the Seahorses. I have seen hermit crabs pull down own of my seahorses and kill it. looks very cool!!!

Bad. Might pay to do some research on Green Hairy algae and hydroids for your little seahorse. A really good place to research for seahorses is this website www.syngnathid.org

Glass shrimp. You can collect them from rock pools. The very small ones will be eaten by the seahorses and the bigger ones will eat whats left over. Make sure they are not too big as you have quite small seahorses. You mention that you have some grasses in your tank. Is the grss stuck to the rocks, green and hairy?

Sometimes they do and sometimes they dont. it sounds like yours might just pull through. Once they get better they can slip back easily so you may have to keep up with 20 - 30% weekly water changes until the seahorse has built up its immunity again and that can take a couple of months. Keep trying on brine shrimp and mysis Keep working at it, they are worth it. Good Luck!!!

then i think it could possibly be internal gas bubble disease. Symtoms are abnormal swelling at the top of the abdomen and they tend to float sideways at the top of the tank. I think you are doing the right thing. Lots of water changes and keep enticing them with the brine shrimp and trying to get them eating mysis

Hi Paula A couple more questions for you When it swims does it have difficulty keeping up right? Are there any small marks on her body or bubbles around her eyes? Does the snout look damaged in any way (maybe split slightly)?

Have done both in my seahorse tank. I think that a deep bed is a bad idea with seahorses (this is from experience) I had a bad tank crash and lost a few horses with a deep bed many years ago. There is so much wasted food with seahorses as they are slow eaters and with that sitting on the bottom of the tank and a small amount of flow it really becomes a problem. I know most people have a clean up crew, but even with the crew it does sit around for a long time. Personally i didnt like the look of a bare bottom tank, but it did make it easier to clean the tank and see what food has been eaten when i used it. At the moment i have a very thin layer of coral sand on the bottom of my tank, it just covers the bottom of the tank. I am finding that to be much easier to look after.

Just wondering if you have had a response from the SPCA. I am thinking about ringing them in regards to a certain large chain Jewellery store in Westcity. They have a goldfish in a vase that would have about a litre of water and is under full halide lights in there display case at the front of the store. Poor fish was frantic as it must have been getting very hot under the lights all day in such a small amount of water. When i went into the store and spoke with the owner of the fish, they said that a marine biologist said that the fish was alright like that. Yeah Right!!!

Hi seahorse crazy The guys here have given you heaps of good info. Keep in mind that kuda seahorse's require a min of 15 litres per seahorse. By adding two more seahorses you might be adding to the problem. Is it possible to take one back, i understand they are small now but they will grow quickly. See if you can feed the seahorses live brine shrimp. They love the chase and then you dont have excess food lying around. I used to feed my kuda's a couple of times a week on the brine shrimp and the love it

what, your not there!!!!! Who will i tease?

HI Joze Your points are very completely correct in regards to big fish tanks and i understand why you feel the way you go about big tanks. Maybe if you explained the reason why the post was written it might help people understand where you are coming from ( for example just had to clean up the mess a leaking big tank made on the carpet of your rental)

Hi If Sounds like she could possibly have a few problems. Is the seahorse a Kuda or potbellied sick. I feel that sometimes taking them away from there tank mates does more harm. I would put her back into the main tank as that may stop her stressing. You could start giving her fresh water bath with declorinated water every day. Put her in a container that is the same temp as your tank and has a hitching post for between 2 - 5 minutes. If she starts stressing out completely take her out. Can you tell me what medication you are using on her as well. If you would like you are more than welcome to PM me and we can discuss further Hope that helps

If, hopefully you havent got two different kinds of horses cause the kuda horses require different temperatures. They need a temp of about 26 degrees and the pot bellies like a temp of 18. Pot bellied seahorses can come in lots of different colours and shapes so it might be that the other female looks a little different, but if you send me a photo of them im sure that we can figure out whats what. We are in prime breeding season at the moment so it could be that your male is trying to court your female potbelly. If you are lucky enough to get babies then you would need a seperate tank set up for them as the adults will eat the babies and lots of baby brine shrimp. It is very hard to raise the young and generally you only get a 20% survival rate but nothing beats keeping a seahorse that you have watched come into the world and now look after. Hermit crabs are fine in the tank and wont eat all of the food in the tank so you should be fine with them. I feed my horses glass shrimp as a special treat, they are neat to watch and generally if the shrimp is too big for them they snap it in half

HI If Can you tell me if richard is selling the pot bellied seahorses or Kuda seahorses? In relation to your question, plants are hard to keep with seahorses as the seahorses like low light but seaweed and plants generally like a large amount of light. Depending on the size of your tank you can have a fish or two caught from the local rockpools and hermit crabs also do well with seahorses. Most things that you find at your local rockpools will do okay in the tank with your seahorses, the only thing to remember is that seahorses are slow eaters. If you introduce lots of fast moving fish or other sealife you will run the risk of starving your horses. Good luck with your seahorses, i would love to see a picture of your set up

I would think seriously about catching wild seahorses and putting them in a tank. They dont have the immune systems that captive bred seahorses due and can catch diseases vey quickly. They also will only eat live food, which means that you would need to find a local supply of live mysis shrimp (or something similar, but not brine shrimp as it does not have enough nutrtion for them) on a daily basis for approximately 6 months while you train them on to frozen food. Catching food for the horses on a daily basis would be a large commitment to make and there is so guarantee that they would survive. If you are really interested in keeping seahorses i would recommend looking at getting the tropical seahorses called kuda's. The only difference in your tank set up would be that you would need a heater and most of the Kuda's in New zealand are captive bred and already eating frozen food. In relation to the lighting. Seahorses dont really like alot of light, but if you are interested in keeping seaweed in the tank, you will need a huge amount of light. They both require two very different things. Good luck with your native tank. Would love to see some photos

There used to be an aquarium on the pier that was okay. If you head into the main township and go towards all of the wharfs (cant miss them they are where all the reef tours and island tours start), one of the main shopping centres in that area is called the Market place. The aquarium is inside that building. Of course nothing compares to being out in the ocean and seeing it for real. Have fun Seahorsemad

Hi All I have been advised by the zoo that they will have to postpone the visit again due to personnel issues which means that the area that we would visit is currently not suitable to have groups go through. The zoo is hoping to reschedule for feb next year and send there apologies to all that have enquired about the trip Cheers Seahorsemad

Went there last week and didnt seem to be alot happening with there marine tank, but they had some seahorses which was good to see. i am organising a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium and reptile exhibits at Auckland zoo on the 25th of November. PM me if you are interested in joining us to see what gear the zoo is running

Hi Guys Have been back in contact with the zoo and due to some exciting developments they have asked that we push back the date. So i can now confirm that we are booked for the 25th of November. Price is still $25.00 per person which includes entry into the Auckland Zoo and a 45 minute tour behind the scenes through the Aquarium and reptile exhibits. I need to get back to the Zoo with exact numbers and payment by the next club meeting. Anyone that is interested in joining us on this trip please PM me or join us at our next club meeting on the 10th of October at the Green Bay Community Hall. Cheers Seahorsemad